Trump's EU ambassador demands change to EU rules

The US government is calling on the European Union (EU) to abolish rules that restrict the business of US tech companies. Andrew Puzder, the new US ambassador to the EU, said this in an interview with the British business newspaper Financial Times.

The EU's digital regulations should not penalize US technology companies or restrict freedom of expression. Otherwise, Puzder told the Financial Times (paywall), the EU would have to change them in order to “maintain good relations” with the US in the future.

No US president could “stand idly by and allow such violations of the fundamental rights of US citizens or indeed US companies,” Puzder said. “So we either have to realize that this is not happening, or we have to make some changes so that it doesn't happen.”

This refers to the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA). The former is intended to ensure fair competition. The latter regulates the responsibility of platform operators, for example, in the case of hate comments.

US tech companies want to abolish the DSA and DMA

Both are a thorn in the side of US tech companies. Apple, for example, has just called for the abolition of the DMA and received support from Google. The search engine operator was recently fined 2.95 billion euros by the EU. US tech companies have therefore been lobbying US President Donald Trump for some time to take action against EU regulations in the digital sector.

Puzder told the Financial Times that he was very concerned about this. After initial discussions, he had gained the impression that there were very different opinions about the effects of DMA and DSA.

“Europe has every right to legislate as it wishes. But I think it would be good if we could agree on the positions of both sides before we go too far,” said Puzder. “Even if the legislation appears neutral at first glance, I think the United States would vehemently object if the intention is to inflict economic damage on competitors outside Europe to help European companies,” he emphasized.

Puzder took up his post at the EU on 11 September. He aims to amend or abolish EU regulations that could penalize US companies. In addition to the regulations mentioned above, these include environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) rules and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).

(wpl)